“Uh…okay?” Junmyeon stood, confused at Kyungsoo abruptly jumping on him and not allowing him to speak. “-and you are?” Junmyeon arched an eyebrow as he posed the question to Kyungsoo while glancing up at Chanyeol very visibly hiding behind Kyungsoo.

“Do Kyungsoo. I went to high school with Chanyeol. I used to live here too but my family moved out about ten years ago.” Kyungsoo replied, picking up Junmyeon’s hand to shake it, even without Junmyeon offering it to him first.

“I see,” Junmyeon acknowledged before staring at Chanyeol who was lowering his head to hide behind the shorter Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo saw Junmyeon looking at them, questionable. Kyungsoo understood that questions were bound to arise when people saw Chanyeol in the state he was, especially if they were used to his old cheerful and boisterous personality.

“I’ll talk to you in a bit. Can you wait here,” Kyungsoo told Junmyeon before grabbing Chanyeol’s hand and leading him up the stairs up to the second floor to where their rooms were.

Kyungsoo unlocked the room and hurriedly told Chanyeol to get in, following behind Chanyeol before locking the door and setting the chain lock in place.

Kyungsoo handed Chanyeol the key to the room and placed it in Chanyeol’s larger hand, closing Chanyeol’s fingers around the key in his palm.

“I’m going downstairs now to talk to Junmyeon. Can you wait for me here? I won’t be long, I promise. I will be back.” Kyungsoo told Chanyeol, rubbing the side of Chanyeol’s arm reassuringly.

“Wait,” Chanyeol halted, grabbing back onto Kyungsoo’s arms and looking worried.

“What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo questioned, looking up into Chanyeol’s dark brown eyes. “Is there something wrong?”

Chanyeol was silent as he scrambled for an answer, darting from looking at the floor to the wall behind Kyungsoo to Kyungsoo’s face himself. Chanyeol did not actually have an exact and clear reason to why he didn’t want Kyungsoo to go down to talk to Junmyeon.

Chanyeol just felt restless and uncomfortable but there was no reason to not let Kyungsoo either. Then, Chanyeol realized that he maybe was just anxious at the thought of being left alone without anyone to pay attention to him.

Knowing that was no good excuse either, Chanyeol shook his head and looked away, releasing his hands from Kyungsoo’s arm.

“Nothing,” Chanyeol brushed it off, “I’ll wait for you here. Go talk to him.”

“Okay then. Lock the door if that makes you feel safe. I will be back,” Kyungsoo smiled before leaving and reminding Chanyeol to lock the door one more time.

Chanyeol did as he was told; promptly locking the door and setting the chain lock back in place when Kyungsoo left.

Chanyeol then scurried to the end of the room and locked the sliding glass doors leading out the balcony too, pulling the curtains to cover the glass doors.

Chanyeol sat on the cushions on the floor, near the coffee table and stared at the wall clock on the opposite wall as he waited for Kyungsoo to return.

Kyungsoo went down to the stairs back to the first floor of the lodging house where he saw Junmyeon waiting on one of the chairs in the guest reception area while reading a newspaper.

Junmyeon saw Kyungsoo coming from the corner of his eye and promptly folded the newspaper, putting it neatly back on the shelf holding the reading material.

“Hi there,” Kyungsoo greeted first, consciously reminding himself to not slip his hands into the pockets of his trousers which he often did as a habit, especially while at work but with the pockets of his lab coat.

“Hello. Do Kyungsoo was it?” Junmyeon stood up from his seat to also greet Kyungsoo. “You know, I think I know you. Your father is the Mr. Do who used to work as the manager of the power plant in this town if I recall correctly?”

“Yes,” Kyungsoo affirmed. “That is him but he is retired now and my mother was a nurse at the old folk’s home before we moved away.”

“My family runs the car dealership in this town. I think you are familiar with us too,” Junmyeon informed, before inviting Kyungsoo to sit on the seat across from him.

Kyungsoo accepted the offer, straightening his shirt before sitting down on the chair opposite from Junmyeon.

Junmyeon too sat back down.

“I think I am,” Kyungsoo pondered, “I know of the shop your family owns but I’m not familiar with any of you, I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright. It’s not a big town anyway so we’re bound to at least know of each other,” Junmyeon added.

“I didn’t know you were married to Chanyeol’s sister though,” Kyungsoo jumped straight to the topic of why he was talking to Junmyeon for but also managed to be tactful, “I heard of her passing. I am sorry for your loss.”

Junmyeon smiled thinly, looking quite melancholic as he replied, “Thank you. It wasn’t easy but I’m moving on and continuing on with my life.”

“It has been five years since then, hasn’t it?” Kyungsoo asked, cautious to not incite any painful memories. “I haven’t actually asked Chanyeol about it because it looked like he still isn’t dealing with it very well.”

“It has,” Junmyeon nodded, affirming, “She and her mother were visiting Chanyeol in Japan when the three of them were involved in a car accident. Their car ran over a cliff and only Chanyeol survived. I knew something was wrong with Chanyeol then because he was screaming at us to not cremate them at their funeral. He said they were still alive and something like that. We thought he was still in shock and denial but it didn’t turn out to be the case,” Junmyeon revealed, looking behind Kyungsoo to see if there was anyone overhearing their conversation because it wasn’t just something that could be easily spoken about.

“I see,” Kyungsoo nodded, “So you are aware of his condition?”

“A little bit,” Junmyeon answered, “I tried to work with Chanyeol’s estranged father to bring him back to Korea after the accident so he could stay with us here but he refused and the Go association backed Chanyeol up to let him stay in Japan.”

“Go is important to him, after all. I can imagine,” Kyungsoo slightly shifted in his seat.

“No. Chanyeol didn’t stay just for Go,” Junmyeon informed.

Kyungsoo was alerted by the new information he had just heard and grown more attentive to the conversation even if he wasn’t already, “What do you mean?”

“My wife and her mother were cremated in Japan and the ashes were split up. We scattered some of the ashes here in their hometown and the rest in the sea in Japan, where they died. Chanyeol didn’t want to leave Japan because he said it was because they were there. I don’t know what he means by that but I think it has something to do with that,” Junmyeon replied.

“You know-“Kyungsoo clicked his tongue, before continuing, “I am not actually sure myself about Chanyeol’s real condition but it does seem like he constantly slips in between being aware of their deaths and not being aware of it. I just can’t tell and I’m too afraid to confront him and ask about it.”

“That’s understandable,” Junmyeon responded, leaning an arm against the armrest of the chair he was sitting on. “It would be hard to get him to even answer because the doctors said something about selective muteness and he doesn’t talk to everyone.”

“I was surprised he wanted to talk to me too, to be honest. I ran into him by accident when he was in Seoul for his tournament,” Kyungsoo admitted.

“I’d say you are a very special person to him then if he trusts you that much,” Junmyeon pointed out, staring straight ahead at Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo flustered, “You give me too much credit. Chanyeol and I were close in high school but we lost contact after that. I’m just trying to help him now.”

After a bit of persuasion and encouragement, Kyungsoo managed to get Chanyeol to go down to meet Junmyeon.

Chanyeol had his head lowered the entire time, refusing to take his hoodie off and clung to Kyungsoo’s arm like a latch.

Junmyeon talked and asked questions while Chanyeol answered it through Kyungsoo, whispering his response to Kyungsoo would reply on his behalf to Junmyeon.

Junmyeon was visibly very happy and pleased to see Chanyeol again. Kyungsoo could see the genuine joy and relief in Junmyeon’s eyes and it occurred to Kyungsoo that Junmyeon really cared about Chanyeol.

Junmyeon seemed like a very nice person too and he was gentle in the way he talked, being thoughtful to treat Chanyeol like a normal person and not bring up the sensitive and heavy topics.

Junmyeon invited Chanyeol and Kyungsoo out for dinner that night since they would already be leaving the next morning.

Kyungsoo was the one who tried to turn Junmyeon’s offer down but it was Chanyeol who made Kyungsoo accept the offer.

For Chanyeol’s sake, Kyungsoo accepted the offer. Kyungsoo was actually a bit happy to see that Chanyeol was responsive to nice gestures from other people even if he needed an intermediary to accept those offers.

Chanyeol was quiet still during the dinner and talked to others through Kyungsoo but there was a smile on his face and he looked happy for once.

Seeing that, Kyungsoo couldn’t help but just want to desire and protect Chanyeol. Kyungsoo knew he could not shelter Chanyeol forever from the hurt because Chanyeol had to learn how to deal with it eventually but it would have to come one small step at a time.

It sounded like a lot of work already but Kyungsoo became a doctor to help people, even if what Chanyeol had was a bit outside of his skills and specialty.

Now, Kyungsoo would be damned if he wasn’t able to at least try and help Chanyeol, his best friend and the person whom he believed had shaped and influenced him into the adult he was now.

Junmyeon dropped Kyungsoo and Chanyeol off back at the guest house before bidding their goodbyes, Chanyeol doing it silently of course.

Junmyeon exchanged phone numbers with Kyungsoo before they returned to the guest house and back into their room.

Kyungsoo set aside the bag with bottles of soju down on the table; a gift from Junmyeon who boasted that they should at least bring back the town’s special brewery products home with them as a souvenir.

Chanyeol had also got one as a gift from Junmyeon.

Kyungsoo was only a social drinker and if he was invited to do so by others, so he had not much use for it. Kyungsoo decided to give it to his parents since he was going to visit them tomorrow, anyway.

Kyungsoo was sure that his parents would at least enjoy it, especially one that came from their hometown.

“I have to use the toilet. Excuse me,” Kyungsoo grabbed his phone and dashed off to the toilet, feeling the call of nature. Kyungsoo knew that he was one to take long toilet breaks and brought his phone along with him like almost every adult in the current age did.

Kyungsoo laughed at random posts on his social media feed and even came across a news article covering Chanyeol’s recent victory at the Go tournament.

Kyungsoo was about to yell out for Chanyeol to show off the article on his phone, only to realize that he was in the middle of his business and should probably just wait until after he was done to do it.

Kyungsoo took the opportunity to call his mother and confirm to her that he would be visiting the next day with Chanyeol. Kyungsoo had informed his parents about it yesterday and they were more than ecstatic to see Chanyeol again.

Kyungsoo had pouted while over the phone and teased his parents about being more excited to see Chanyeol and not him.

Kyungsoo’s father later reasoned it was because they got to see Kyungsoo every month and every holiday but it had been over a decade since they last saw Chanyeol. That was fair enough and Kyungsoo shrugged it off.

Kyungsoo also made sure to inform his parents beforehand about the change in Chanyeol and how Chanyeol was not exactly the same man he was from years ago. Important details such as the car accident and the passing of Chanyeol’s mother and sister were also not left out, especially concerning the important fact and condition whereby Chanyeol might not want or be able to talk to them at all.

Despite hearing that, Kyungsoo’s parents were still more than welcome and excited to see Chanyeol again.

Kyungsoo left the toilet after putting his phone aside and washing his hands, drying them off with some papers towels that he later flushed down in the toilet bowl.

Kyungsoo stepped back into the room from the toilet and saw Chanyeol sitting on the small stepping ledge that separated the balcony from the room area.

The sliding glass doors were left wide open and the curtains pushed aside to reveal the clear night sky outside,